Taking Our Gift

I wrote a blog post for XXXChurch last week titled ‘Grace for My Shame’. Some of the comments that I received from wives dealing with their husbands’ addictions were heartbreaking. As I have read and prayed over these comments this week, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about shame and why we get trapped in it. There is one thought that I had to share with all of you: Always remember that we were made to be takers.

I spend a lot of time in my off-line life, and even here on this blog, complaining – or lamenting?- about the Church not being a Church selflessly devoted to loving and giving to others. While many really are out doing the hard work of the Gospel by serving others, many more are what my pastor referred to recently as consumers of the church. People who come to be fed without giving the sacrifice of service. Why is it so hard for us to give? As I sat with this shame question all weekend I began to wonder if we aren’t giving because we haven’t yet learned to receive.

Everything in Jesus’ message of grace is about taking something that is being freely given to us. Receiving that gift goes beyond accepting that Jesus died for our sins. It also means taking that gift of grace and using it. Accepting forgiveness for our sinful condition is a process, not an event. We experience sin every day and need to experience grace every day too, not just on the day we accept Christ. When we truly take what we have been given, we allow that grace to transform us. We submit to the process of accepting God’s grace to transform our hurt, our hate, our selfishness, our shame – all of the things that separate us from Him. This week’s blog comments reminded me how difficult it is to receive the gift of grace to cover and transform our shame.

When we’re living with dead fruit like shame, guilt, pride, and envy it’s really difficult to produce the spiritual fruit that equips us to be the givers that we would all like to see the Church become. So, this week’s lesson for me is that maybe I need to lighten up a bit and give the Church a break. Maybe the question isn’t “Why isn’t the Church giving?” Maybe the question is “Why aren’t we taking?”

What gift have you had difficulty accepting? Do you think that not taking our gifts makes it difficult to give?